To Aru Kagaku no Railgun S – 14

It’s tough waiting. Not many people like sitting around and just doing nothing―especially if there’s something you know you could be doing right now. And as the beginning of this episode highlights, there are just fewer things tougher than the situation Kuroko is in right now. On one hand, she knows by now there’s definitely something up and she wants to get involved. At the same time though, as a friend, she knows she has to respect Misaka’s decision to not involve her too. Combine that with the fact that she said she’d wait―which innately means that she believes that Misaka can handle it by herself―and it’s something that’s pretty gut wrenching to see considering her usually cheerful demeanor. But I guess in the end, that’s just how it is. Because behind all the things going on and all the shenanigans we’ve gotten, Railgun’s something that’s always shined as a result of the friendships and bonds the main cast has, and what this shows is how great of a friend Kuroko really is. Indeed, you know you have a true friend when they suffer just as you do when they see you dealing with a problem.

While we’re on the topic, another key thing about friends is that they typically come in all types. Some may be people you only see once in a while. Some may be people you don’t really know too well, but would come running to your aid regardless if you needed it. And as we see this week, Touma’s one of these kinds of people. With the realization of Misaka’s plight―courtesy of a certain feline―Touma springs into action. As it turns out, the hero that Misaka so wished for was around her the entire time, and it sets up the bridge meeting that many Index fans have been waiting for this entire time.

Suffice to say, it’s an emotional confrontation―one that demonstrates the toll that this entire arc has had on Misaka. Indeed, everything here shows the trauma she’s had to deal with, and how she arguably isn’t thinking clearly at this point. Wanting someone to blame her, wanting to willingly sacrifice herself to try and stop the experiment, thinking that Touma’s whole purpose in coming was to make her pay, questioning her worth, believing that her death would definitely stop the plan, thinking that the world has no place for someone like her anymore… all of this is the culmination of the last 13+ episodes and again, although many of us knew this was coming, it doesn’t lessen the impact at all.

With that said, all of the above just makes what Touma did―his refusal to let her pass (YOU SHALL NOT PASS!) while deciding not to fight her―even more notable. Because what this ultimately makes Touma in this situation is a kind of tether to reality and to humanity. He ends up being is the person that forces Misaka to calm down and realize how she’s acting purely on emotion and not necessarily doing this as much for her sisters as she is for herself (to give herself peace). With this, he pulls her back down to Earth so to speak, and gives her that chance to finally cry and let out the emotions she’s kept inside all this time. And what’s more is that in and of itself is not without its own irony too, as the guy with the most inexplicable ability ends up being this tether.

What the above goes to show though, is that friends (and heroes) can come in all shapes and forms, and that friendship can show itself in more ways than one. Looking forward, it’s Accelerator vs. Touma coming up… and with Gen’ei wo Kakeru Taiyou (and its tarot card focus) having recently aired, I can’t help but note how fitting it is to compare Touma to “The Fool” at this point. After all, The Fool is typically represented by the number 0 (Touma’s level), the literal definition of the word “fool” is theoretically representative of him as well, and it’s been said that the zero is also representative of both nothing and everything (an apt description for his ability and how he’s theoretically both powerless and extremely powerful at the same time). Talk about fitting the description to a T (literally, even the T matches his first name!).

i hope J.C. staff can continue to adapt touma like this in the upcoming index season 3. not only did my love for his character grew even more but now he seems almost like a completely different character. please J.C. staff keep improving kamijou more and more and “DEM FEELS” in this episode i shed manly tears with that touma and mikoto moment, touma is such a beautiful person he has a way with expiring words.

Definitely agree. Plus, they took out that really awful line where Touma says he “Doesn’t know why [he's] doing [what he's doing]” when Misaka asks him why he’s stopping her. That line was just….really bad.

I really liked this new, revised version of the events of To Aru Index. Very little was changed in terms of events or dialogue, but better animation and art direction give the events more gravity than the first time around.

It was interesting to watch the cat do a Kuroko on Misaka’s bear.

Speaking of which, whatever happened to the cat later on? I’m a bit surprised to see Misaka not being surprised/delighted that there is an animal that doesn’t mind her electric field.

We all know this scene would happen after seeing it in the first season but seeing it again in Misaka’s perspective where we get to truly see how desperate and in need of help she is, was really refreshing and can really evoke emotions.

I am more surprised on how the cat (I believe the cat’s name is Sphinx) survived Misaka’s electrical orb blast when even Touma was knocked out cold.

Its amazing how even though its like watching the same episode from the 1st season of Index, that it can still be intriguing and in some way, even surpass the original episode. If there is one thing, the emotion shown from Mikoto’s perspective is much stronger.

And when Touma comforted a crying Mikoto by patting her head…. it was a such a sweet moment and makes me root for a Mikoto x Touma ending even more :D

“The emotions combined with the soundtrack for this episode made this the best episode out of the 4 seasons of To Aru Universe that JC Staff has done so far”

Couldnt have said it better myself….now if the previous index/railgun installments where this good, i think it would have convinced those who find the series to be annoying and average to take a second look. Seriously, Nagai tatsuyuki must have talked with JC staff or something and told them “I want this season of railgun to surpass anything that has come before it so you better keep the animation at top quality every week, and ill make sure i bring my A game to the director’s chair”

I never saw the Previously Index Sessions. And i cant find working Seeds so far, but thats not what i wanna say. Perhaps i can call me Lucky?. Because i cant compare with the Past Sessions and enjoy the current episode to the fullest, without Background Noise?

I Like this Index Session. Thy play well with the Emotions, for adult Spectators

Omg is this really the same JC Staff that animated LB, Hidan no Aria , the past 3 Raildex animes?
Shiit!! The whole scene reminded me of Fate/Zero’s bridge scene between Rider and Archer . The quality and emotion of this episode is insane . JC Staff please animate Index season 3 with such awesome standards too.

To be fair to JC, Railgun 1 and Index 2 were good, and JC also produced decently good shows like Toradora, Ano Natsu de Matteru, and Sakurasou. Though that’s because the first two mentioned were also directed by Railgun director Nagai, so it’s more to do with who’s in charge rather than who the studio is.

In a nutshell, JC Staff has a very inconsistent track record. When they are shit, they can be really shitty. Yet once they get their shit right, they can be as good as other well-known studios you can think of.

Ok I’ve concluded, Dog/Tokugawa Ieyasu/Deferred > Vending Machine > Touma’s “Nokia” Phone > Level 5
Jokes aside, goddamit this is the most emotional Raildex episode I’ve ever seen, beating even the same season’s Episode 6. I’ve never felt this emotional when I watched the same scene in Index I. TouMAN really is da Man! Next up, someone about to get KO-ed by his Falcon Punch.

Is it late for me to notice that all the songs that Railgun S reflects the show? Aside from the obvious Sister’s Noise song, the song Stand Still really reflects Touma and Mikoto’s relationship in this arc. And damn the OST is aweomse. Now why can’t the past Raildex seasons have the same intense OST as this season?

And Touma is seriously unlucky. If the subs are correct, its been only 3 weeks since he managed to stop Index from going berserk, and he got sent to the hospital. After that its the Deep Blood Arc, and he got sent to the hospital (again). After this…..god he’s really unlucky visiting the hospital in the span of 3 weeks.

You forgot Touma’s phone. It’s still working even after that electric attack. And it will actually fare worse later on and still be in working condition. It’s the most indestructible object in Raildex. Maybe he should throw it on Accel’s face…
But the real MVP would be the cat. Not so much as a scratch after that electric attack. How did it do that?
Cat > Vending Machine > Misaka. They should make the cat fight Accel instead…

And the current date is August 21. Touma met Index on the balcony on July 20. He stopped Pendex on July 28. And yeah, he’s a regular at the hospital with all he’s been doing.
Fukou da…

The thing is at no point did Mikoto go all out. She subconsciously kept pulling her punches. Having another innocent death on her hands would have broken her right then and there and, in reality, she didn’t want to die either. Touma not fighting her was the one thing that could break her resolve by not allowing her to maintain her anger.

The voice actors have really pushed themselves for this episode. Mikoto’s despair and Touma’s refusal to fight/let her pass made me shiver. Kudos to Atsushi Abe and Rina Sato. They sure have seriously improved since Index II

Well Seiyun’s are Voice “Actors”. Lucky for them they dont well timidity to been watched from Thousand of Eyes. Only the Voice Director behind the Glass, can see you. But the Gap between Voice and Real Actors are not that Big. You just need to overcome the shyness being watched

What do you mean, real actors? They are real actors! People say there are thousands of seiyuu’s and wannabe’s in Japan. Abe and Sato, they are the elite among them. Of course they can act great if an opportunity arise.

P.S. In Index 2 (I think) there was this one scene where Touma was chasing someone till they reach the construction site. Fast forward, there was a cut where Mikasa eavesdropped on Touma and the antagonist. Any idea what transpired that made Biribiri go to instant jelly?

it was season one when he chased the shapeshifter guy. At the end of the fight the antagonist asks him to protect Misaka. Touma replies “I’ll protect her world” or something like that. It was revealed in the one of the light novels.

It wasn’t revealed what Touma replied to Etzali’s question, even in the novels(I know, I just reread vol5). But the fact of the matter is it made Misaka, who kind of saved them from the falling debris and was listening in, blush like mad.
Interpret it how you will.

I went ahead and watched the Index Sister’s Arc so I would know what was going on (Railgun is still a “side” story to Index after all) amd to be honest, i almost fell asleep during the bridge scene in Index. Why? I don’t know, but it felt incredibly slow and boring.

Now a few weeks later and watching this scene again, GOD DAEYUM this got a lot much better! The art quality, the voice quality, the soundtrack…. It was just a perfect combination. Now I can finally remember what Misaka said without dozing off haha.

I’m certainly not alone in my praise for this episode. OMG, the emotions, the animation, the voice actors! The high point of the story to this point. Satou and Abe hit the scene on the bridge right out of the park. I was amazed by how well the animation blended so well with the emotion in their voices. It’s going to be hard to top this.

Indeed. I was actually looking back at the Index episodes yesterday night, and despite the fact that it was mostly the same sequence of events, it definitely felt better. Some of the animation in particular was improved, more angles were put in, and it wasn’t spread over multiple episodes either. Generally, there was more of a focus on just that bridge dialogue alone, which combined with the new soundtrack piece to really make this scene shine.

This was probably episode of the year of any show so far. The voice acting, the animation, the soundtrack, the directing. Just wow. I actually had my mouth agape during the entire confrontation on the bridge just because of how much better the scene came across.

And then of course there’s that nice added touch from the Railgun manga that made the scene so much better.

I beg demand that Nagai Tatsuyuki be the director of the next Index series. The job he did with the exact same material as Nishikiori Hiroshi is a testament to just how big of a difference there is between the two’s abilities as directors. (I suppose directing shows like AnoHana, Toradora and Ano Natsu de Matteru helps though)

I want Nagai to take over so badly but sadly i dont think it’s going to happen. If it does, ill know for a fact that Index III will be a deeper experience. Some people may have not liked the slice of life aspect of the first season of railgun but Nagai’s directing chops and Affinity for character development was still present; eps pertaining to Konori, Saten, and Tesso where my personal favorites. I especially loved how they fleshed out Tesso’s character; someone who couldnt do her job right and needed a distraction to get her mind off of things (how many of us wish we could do that) and so in order to do that, she engages in playing a fighting game that she grew up with against an aspiring game developer. The character development in that ep was great. In short, Nagai should take over.

You’re giving too much credit.
After 4 times doing the same arc in novels(index), 2 manga(Index and Railgun) and Index anime(first season), having it being done well by the 5th time is least to be expected.

So apparently because it’s been shown before that means we should disregard an absolutely amazing job done by the team? I don’t like that reasoning, I never will and , quite frankly, I find it ignorant.

Hard work and a job well done should be celebrated. If they just phoned in this part of the series just because it’s been shown before, I would have lost all respect for everyone involved in the project.

This is a hypothetical situation, and I’m not sure if you actually like Fate/Stay Night, but if Ufotable decides to reanimate Fate/Stay Night as a whole, one route at a time, and they do an amazing job that puts Studio DEEN to shame (not hard though), should their job be disregarded simply because it’s been done before in a Visual Novel, manga, and anime? This would be the fourth time the Fate route would be done in media.

This all really just comes down to personal opinion though. I may not agree nor like your opinion, but it’s very much within your rights to have said opinion. As is the case with me. I found this episode to be the best of the year for me because of the entire presentation of the episode. The voice acting, animation, soundtrack and directing were all superb so I see no reason to alter my standing simply because I’ve seen it before.

I like the episode, but Touma is a moron and a masochist. He could have saved himself and Misaka a massive amount of pain and left himself in better shape by just saying, on the bridge, when he first met:

“Listen – you’ve fought me. Well, my power is to CANCEL OTHER PEOPLE’S POWERS.”
“So I can take Accelerator. Let’s team up. You distract accelerator and I’ll hit him, cancel his powers. Then everyone will see he’s a wuss and cancel the experiment.”

But NO, he can’t bother to explain this, and has to do the “you shall not pass.” And only then, after upsetting Misaka, getting himself beat to shit, and almost getting his cat fried, he makes the offer. And even then, instead of bringing her along to double team Accelerator, he runs off and leaves her there.

Him teaming up with Misaka defeats the purpose of Touma fighting Accelerator alone.
If Touma fights with Misaka and somehow beat Accel, the researchers will just chalk off the win as a fluke because Misaka was there and will still continue the experiments.
This fight hinges on the fact that he’s a Level 0 and the enemy is a Level 5 yet the latter will be defeated by the former, thereby destroying all the calculations that they have done all this time and making it that the strongest Level 5 cannot reach the mythical Level 6.

And Touma just thought of the plan to fight Accelerator after he was attacked by that full power electricity. All he was thinking while blocking Misaka is that he doesn’t approve of Misaka’s suicidal tendency as the means to solve this and that there’s surely a way to solve this without anyone dying anymore.

Lastly, he’s 3 weeks into his amnesia from the Index arc. He doesn’t remember Misaka and the times they fought. So he couldn’t suggest that.

“To break her out of her daze, a strong “shock” was required. Touma could have:

-just defeated her. She would eventually accept her loss and stop but Touma didn’t want to hurt someone who was already in pain
-let her go ahead and die to be free of her pain
-let her tire herself out by screaming, attacking and crying until she calmed down and can think clearly”

Let’s try a thought experiment. A girl, armed with a knife, is thinking of a suicidal attack on a man who killed her sister. She’s really upset. Do you:

Do you:

(A) Try to block their path and telling them No repeatably until they think you’re an enemy too and stab you, then volunteer, despite your injuries, to fight the guy in their place?

(B) Tell them “You’re not alone! I’ll help you! I’m going to help you get the bastard who killed your sisters?” especially considering that’s what you end up doing in A, above?

Which is more likely to be a logical reaction that a normal human being of average intelligence (who, like Touma, is willing to fight for justice) would do?

My problem with the episode scene is that Touma did not say “LET ME HELP YOU”

The details of whether they team up to fight accelerator, or have her stay back and maybe rescue or distract any of the Sisters while he does the job, or whatever are irrelevant.

The point is that Misaka was feeling alone and helpless and despairing. She wasn’t berserk with rage until Touma goaded her by getting in her way but NOT offering to help her.

1. Mikoto’s plan to invalidate the experiment was to show that the basis for it (the clones of the rank 3 Level 5) weren’t good enemies since the original died pathetically in the 1st move. Touma’s plan to invalidate it was to change another basis (Accelerator being the strongest) by being beaten up by a level 0. Accelerator being beaten by a SERIOUS level 5 who is helped by a level 0 will make it harder for them to change their mind since a level 5 being beaten by another level 5 might be considered to be within the acceptable error range.

2. We’re not shown if Touma can cancel a person’s entire power set by grabbing hold of them (unless it’s a pure supernatural creature like Gabriel or Hyouka). Mikoto in their former fight held his right hand and tried shocking him through that hand. It was never clarified if she could still fire a bolt from her forehead or other hand. Touma never grabbed Accelerator’s wrist and pounded him with his left either, he played it smart as if he would die if he got touched by Accel and always used his right to attack. Unless we are shown otherwise, we can assume the negation of the auto-reflect only happens on the point where IB is touching Accelerator so Mikoto shooting a bolt at him while Touma negates his auto-reflect for his whole body is doubtful.

3. Using reason to calm down a suicidal person distraught with grief is harder than you think. He already reasoned out that her idea might fail, that it won’t save her and that the sisters will not be happy even if it did work but she still wanted to go ahead and suicide. To break her out of her daze, a strong “shock” was required. Touma could have:

-just defeated her. She would eventually accept her loss and stop but Touma didn’t want to hurt someone who was already in pain
-let her go ahead and die to be free of her pain
-let her tire herself out by screaming, attacking and crying until she calmed down and can think clearly

Touma chose the 3rd option. If you say Touma could have explained it better or earlier, sure, I’ll agree with you. But please do consider these following points before calling a character a moron.

The very fact that Touma doesn’t have a good idea of accelerator’s capabilities or vulnerabilities argues for him to not run off on his own.

“Team Up with Misaka” doesn’t have to be Misaka and Touma fighting accelerator directly, if they think that will not invalidate the experiment. Could just be Misaka telling Touma what happened in the last fight, and being ready to help out if something goes wrong with Touma’s plan.

The thing is, again, “annoy the near-suicidal girl until she zaps you until you’re near-dead, THEN attack my friend’s enemy alone” makes for a great dramatic visual, but it’s
just not the sort of thing a normal, sane person (Touma, theoretically) would do.

If he’d said ANYTHING like “like me help you save the sisters” or “I’ll fight him for you” or ” we can fight him together” What they work out afterward – even if it’s the same plan Touma ends up using – is irrelevant. The point is that Touma didn’t do the very simple, normal, thing of offering Misaka help or hope. And that’s why he’s stupid.

If you think Touma’s sane, he’s not. Birdway herself said “You’re insane… You’re completely insane” after realizing his personality. This is the same guy who rushed Agnese’s base alone to face multiple armed warriors and decided to fall with the Star of Betlehem to save others. This is the same guy who would willingly make himself the target of an entire magic cabal to save an innocent girl who may not even be human. Taking lightning shots to SHOW he’ll never let Mikoto suicide is normal for this guy.

And that’s what this was, a SHOW of will. You can tell someone you’re there to help them but it won’t work if the person in question shuts herself off. Mikoto was so convinced that dying was the only option left. She wasn’t berserk with rage and that’s the problem, she was so trapped in her despair there was nothing else for her to consider but death. She even gave Touma the biting remark that “There’s absolutely nothing you can do” so telling a person so convinced of it “I can help you, let’s work together. You’re not alone/There’s still hope/There’s something I can do” will not be effective. And as was mentioned, I would agree that he could have explained it better or earlier but that would just be for the sake of the audience and would just lessen the dramatic effect. In the end, it would be nothing but lip service for Mikoto herself.

“There’s absolutely nothing you can do. Don’t just spew your pretty words and ideals. You make me sick.”

She even said this early on before any offer of help could be said and when Touma was just considering possible options. So he didn’t try to spew any more pretty words of help or hope, he showed her his will. And in that battle of wills, Mikoto acknowledged him, backed down, broke down, cried and finally opened up to Touma.

In a similar and amusing way, if you’re so convinced that Touma was a moron or Mikoto could be reached by mere words before she broke down, then there’s absolutely nothing I can do as long as you’re convinced of it. All of my/other people’s reasoning+quotes won’t reach you so this will be my last post in an attempt to come to an understanding.

If you looked at Touma’s character you would notice that he doesn’t really plan anything when saving/attacking anyone. He flies by the seat of his pants, which means he takes a lot of damage to get his win. Touma can come up with detailed attack plans, case in point Russia. However, here he is running on emotion and he is fighting someone who is at the end of her rope emotionally.

You’re trying to force logic/reasoning onto a person who normally doesn’t act that way in a extremely emotionally situation.

Touma is the grunt in the middle of a firefight, not the general back in HQ.
Basically, tactical vs strategic.

This episode was awesome in so many ways. Think I almost killed my fingers just writing up my own thoughts about it.

I agree this shows how friends come in all sorts of forms. Both Touma and Kuroko act as good friends in their different ways. Often you can really appreciate a friend like Kuroko who respects that she hasn’t been asked to get involved and Mikoto for some reason doesn’t want her involved. Someone that will respect your privacy and has such strong faith.

Then of course you do need a Touma now and then. Everyone needs help at some point. No matter your personality you can still reach a point where you’ve hit your limit. Mikoto has been struggling and fighting and suffering this whole time. It was at this point where she could see no other path than her own death. At that moment she needed someone like Touma to jump in and stop her. Mikoto needed someone to stand in her corner. As much as she has tortured herself and wants to be blamed, she also wants someone to help her.

That whole encounter on the bridge was outstanding. The OST just hit the mark in a big way and have to give huge props to Mikoto’s VA. You could really feel what Mikoto was going through and just how emotionally charged she was right then.

Not only does Touma stands up to a pissed off 3rd strongest level 5 without fighting her taking hits head-on and still living, but decides to get rid of the hellish experiment by kicking the ass of the 1st strongest level 5 about 30mins.
As well as we all know he manages to live too. Last but not least ends up in a hospital after succeeding for like a couple days.

Dude truly deserves a lot of respect, shit give him a damn medal much less an extension to his harem.

YEAH!!! TOUMAN HERE TO SAVE THE DAY. The OST, the VAs and the quality of animation made this the best from Raildex thus far. J.C. knew this scene was important and they didn’t disappoint. If this quality keeps up into Index S3, J.C. will be swimming in money. Time to break some illusions next episode. Also where can I get Touma’s phone :3 (it’s still working after all that electricity shot at Touma)

It was so emotional I can’t get the feeling off my chest. I keep repeating the same scene again and again. The Bridge scene is one of the best Touma x Misaka scenes I’ve watch. Good thing, Touma came to the rescue for her. She’s now starting to fall in love with him.

That Pat, That Blush, That adorable cry of hers. My feelings for a Touma X Misaka is relive and getting stronger again. Those two would make a great couple.

I’m really loving Railgun that from time to time I watch the previous episodes. The animation, the soundtrack, the story, the characters and the voice actors. As MISAKA 9982 said, “Good job, desu” to JC Staff.

Misaka has been holding off her emotions. And it was Touma who was able to help her release all that pent up emotions inside her that neither Kuroko, Uiharu nor Saten was able to.

LOL, silly me. Here I thought the last episode was very well done and solid proof that it can be worthwhile revisiting “old material.” IMO, to say this was an outstanding episode is an understatement. I finished watching a short while ago, and I’m still a little stunned by what I saw. The bridge scene was one of the best anime scenes I’ve watched in a long, long time. Incredibly powerful and emotional.

One miscellaneous comment. Touma’s phone must be at the pinnacle of Academy City technology. He get’s bombarded by who knows how many volts of electricity, and yet it still works just fine. I want one.

I’m actually of the opinion that their should have been a flashforward here. Maybe with some highlights. But aside from a few bits of internal monologue, we’ve seen this all before. There is a fine line between fleshing out old content on a repeat pass and just repeating it, and I feel they are falling on the wrong side of the line here.

As little as Kuroko has taken part in this arc she actually plays a very important role, if she had not waited as she promised Touma would never have found the documents Mikoto had hidden in the teddy bear.

I was touched by Misaka’s words “There’s no other choice than for me to die. If one life can save the lives of ten thousand, then isn’t that a wonderful thing? Wouldn’t that be fine?” And the way it was delivered by Rina Satou was just amazing.